A transaction of Rs 1,590 has bagged a Central Bank of India customer a lucky bounty of Rs 1 crore under the government’s promotional scheme to popularise digital payments.
President Pranab Mukherjee picked the lucky winners from the 100th draw of lots under digital payments promotion schemes at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
He congratulated the six winners—three consumers and three merchants—of Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana.
In the consumer section, the first mega prize of Rs 1 crore went to a customer of Central Bank of India, while the second prize of Rs 50 lakh went to a Bank of Baroda customer.
A customer of Punjab National Bank is the winner of the third prize of Rs 25 lakh.
All the three customers had done transactions using their RuPay debit cards. The names of three winners were not yet known as the draw only displayed their transaction numbers.
These will be matched with card details to identify the winners.
Three merchants also won prizes of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, respectively.
The winners will be felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14 at Nagpur on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.
Following demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 9 last year, the government introduced a slew of measures to promote digital payments in the country.
The government launched the Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants on December 25, 2016 to promote digital transactions. These schemes are being implemented by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
In his address, Mukherjee asked citizens to extend their unstinted support to the mission of a less-cash India.
“India has a long way to go to become a cash-less society. The initiatives of the government are a good beginning and we need to sustain and nurture these with active participation from all segments of the society.
“It is necessary to reduce cash in circulation and impart greater urgency to promoting secure digital payment methods to ensure greater transparency,” the President said.
Presently, India remains primarily a cash-based economy with about 95 per cent of personal consumption and 86 per cent of all transactions being in cash.
As part of the government’s promotional schemes, Digi Dhan melas were held in 100 cities over 100 days and 15,000 consumers qualified everyday for total prize money of Rs 1.5 crore. Additionally, 14,000 weekly winners, both consumers and merchants, have received a total prize money of over Rs 8.3 crore every week.